Research on Teaching: A Dynamic Area of Inquiry. Occasional Paper No. 7.

Lanier, Judith E.

Research on teaching, encompassing those judgments and actions of teaching that can affect the curriculum and instruction that learners encounter in school, is a necessity if public school personnel are to cope with the increased social pressures on the schools. Early empirical research in the field focused on teachers or learning, rather than on teaching. In the 1950's and 60's, however, a new approach emerged involving classroom observations of teaching. Often this research could determine no direct relations between teacher behavior and student learning. Current research efforts are involved with increasingly complex research that not only address teaching behaviors but also teacher thinking during instruction and instructional design. What constitutes effective teaching differs as a function of variations in teachers, learners, resources, and the school and community environment, and research must in the end seek out regularities among these many complex parts. (DS)